Gweny

B) Hi friends, Minutes of last meeting is available on site at 10 April Meeting Big thanks to Frosty for doing minutes and to you all for all you do!

;) I ADORE 5 min boards. It is fun fast furious bridge - no it is maybe not "real" bridge or "expert" bridge... it is fun fast furious bridge. It is maybe "cowboy" bridge where you ride hard and worry after if you miss xyz. I agree frosty. People do NOT read. it is almost like we need conditions of contest acceptance prior to sign up tee hee. I also agree with bearmum... why must we rate our tournaments at speed of slowest pairs? My solution is keep close eye on how many tables is finish. when I get to 5% or less remaining then we move to next round/do not add time. if it is troublesome round with 2 slam bidding boards and 20 tables is not finish yet then we add time. This is not yielding to slowest pair this is good management. To address this slowest pairs problem we recently change Fun Fishys to 3 board rounds. I am happy to report this is big sucess from players and td perspective. Players is happy for now they play 6 boards prior to first cut, and impact of 1 bad board is reduce. Tds is happy for we see FAR less adjustments since we now only see 4 rounds :-) Players is better at finishing since they do not need to do hello we play blah blah blah as much times. Downside is people play less pairs. But upside is more people play more boards :-) Our sub rates is also down. I recommend you try it! you might like it and see some of you slow player issues go away.

:D Welcome Willow! If you need any help please feel free to message me or any of mentors. I do Fishys 2 times per day and you welcome to co-direct with us if you like. 11:30am or 10:45 pm

B) In general I am oppose to sharing lists. Number 1 reason I oppose this is very simple. PartyA maybe is naughty in TDa tournament but perfect angel in TDb tournament. I know this from LONG experience (2.5 years,) serving on Board of Directors for AOL WorldPlay Bridge Association (volunteer tournament organization who you now know as Total Points club) Often people do NOT get along with particular td for what ever reason but urge to play tournament overwhelm common sense to control attitude or chat. With advent of auto-ban of i.d. jerks (who is original purpose of this list) my naughty list is going to zero. (from LARGE to very very small) People who is currently on my list is for variety of reasons, some of which is solvable with software (note this do not mean doable or practical) 1. People who find pushing "Director Call" button as much fun as doubling 7nt with 3 aces. (maybe software fixable) 2. People who like to argue with td on variety of topics including subbing, and adjustments, who persist in calling again and again or worse who try find other co-director who will make favorable ruling on case who directorA say no to. 3. People who is not worth effort for they call every round for some "slight" from opps. At some point people like this is not welcome for they calls boarder on frivolous. (ie table of sayc players and playerA calls and say things like blah blah not alert stayman) People who is abusive do not belong on list they belong in email to abuse@bridgebase.com . This include people who is rude to players, subs, partners, and tds. This is not type people any of us care share table with and certainly any td do us all very big favor by reporting this type people to abuse@bridgebase.com or available yellow. Screen prints is always nice way to help BBO with rude people since private chat is not available for review. Contact me if you need help with this skill. While we on topic of abuse. I think it is important we TDs lead by example and not abuse call to lobby for subs function of subbing interface. You please recall how long it take you to sign up for subbing or for individual tournament and you please WAIT this same amount of time prior to clicking button in frustration for you need sub(s). It is very annoying, and little bit embarassing to see lobby fill with autogenerate messages for needing subs. this, to, is also maybe software fixable. Personally I like to see 1 min lock out on both director call button (per table) and call to lobby for subs button (per tournament) I feel much better.

concur with mrp... All of Fishys are open to all BUT enemies of host (current list is 6 people) You need to actually look at description. Maybe it is time for Fred to consider removing lock if only restriction is enemy of host?

;) Thanks Uday! It is with great happiness I report SIGNIFICANT drop in need for subs. Now it is basically people who is away from computer at start of match and people with bad connections. Of course we still seeing people who suddenly forget they important thing they MUST do at this very instant. tee hee (translation... i hate my partner or i hate my results) My reaction to reduce need for subs is reducing survivor cut or eliminating it in some rounds.

Thank you all for very very fun and laughing thread. I nominate Slothy for official BBO Giggle maker!

:P Hi Friends... We all see players who return again and again to sub for us. Maybe we need to consider adding place to nominate worthy players to acknowledge how much they help us on consistent basis on website. What do you think?

B) Hi all Reminder tomorrow is BBO TDs meeting in club at 11:00 edt/16:00 gmt. Please note new version of bbo software is now available BBO Software Ver 3.6.9 - please download and install and report any bugs you find. :-) Today is last day to add agenda items so please email any additions you like see to Gweny@bridgebase.com See you tomorrow!

:) Yes first cut is at end of round 2 for tournaments with 3 board rounds. I try 3 board rounds and first cut do come at end of round 2

:) NEW Toy for TDs In response to growing schedule you now find Modify Exisiting Weekly Event form on BBO TDs site. Please remeber to use web forms to add, or modify events vs leave notes for me in BBO Mail... it is to easy to miss one. Enjoy!

:) Sorry free... But Spwdo is correct. Program determine when first cut happen and tds may adjust up from end of round 2 for 2 board rounds. not sure on 3 board rounds since i do not try this yet. For me if tournament is running smooth and thanks to automatic tracking of intentional disconnect jerks I think we see many more smooth running tournaments, then I am happy to move out on when first cut happens. If huge numberr of tables is in play across ttournament area and subs is in short supply then i probably do not move when first cut happen out. For you see when first cut happen this free large numbers of people to do other things or return to sub. We direct tournaments for enjoyment of players. As previously state in many different treads it is important to READ tournament description vs complain after you no idea for what type of tournaments. For example I adore fast bridge. But last time I try 5 min per board it is complete and total disaster. Why do i not try again? For I very good idea people sign up and do not read description and enter event where they no intention or ability to play 5 min boards thereby ruining experience for all. Survivors is fun tournaments. They is maybe not "real" bridge but it is exciting to advance to next round and to finally make it to last round. it is not same as winning but trust me... i know of many people who is thrill to find they is playing last round of Fun Fishy Survivors is answer, in part, to enormus need for subs when jerks who no respect for fellow players or director decide they no hope of winning and disconnect. It is directly relate to intentional disconnections and if Uday's new auto-detect thing work in manner we hope then perhaps we see decline in number of survivors.

Well message to lobby do work but i to like to see some method of people who refuse is remove from list. it is real problem since if they is only one or is top of list it delay entire procedure. I do not know what is answer to red dot or unresponsive players. I do think this WONDERFUL tracking Uday is now doing maybe reduce our needs for subs significantly and we is left with true connection problems vs idiots who is mad at partner or unhappy with results and therefore "entitle" to disconnect.

In unclock tournaments i see where this is maybe problem but PLEASE do not do this for non clock tournaments... in survivor Fishy we see regular stable of subs who return for us throughout tournament if they is eliminate. I like to thank this people for helping so much.

:D Maybe some nice person volunteer to put text into .lin files for Fred so he only need write article :-)

:D Slothy you is very funny man and very very fun. Maybe you start directing Comedy Central Tournament and give us all very fun 12-16 boards to lift our spirits and give us many giggles. I know i laugh very very hard when I read this post from you and look forward to you next one!

:D tee hee no... I force to turn off all sound on computer when I notice my young parrot is now making same sounds we here in bbo... tee hee he also do police car, tele, (including hang up noise) and boot up sound. sigh - kids!

:rolleyes: Well I use, and i think frosty use, what we call macros file. Type out what you want to say then send this to you in either email or save it in .txt file. then when it is time to send announcements you copy in paste into chat line. We all lust for macro keys we may program with 7-8 messages we use all time. in other site in past many tds find this very helpful in addition to copy last 4 lines of chat. this is very helpful when you accidentally type in things you wish to send to lobby only to find you send it to tournaent and need start all over again :-(

Concur with MR1303 Appologies to AdOut I do not think it is TDs intention to annoy any person who graciously agrees to sub. Without subs there is no tournaments. I do manually subbing when player is unresponsive or red dot. I think my reasoning is if you in sub list you is willing to sub. We no much options on speaking to people in list and at this point software do invoke accept/decline thing. Given pace we see in rounds 1 and 2 and amount of time who is pass when we is call to table speed is of essense since normally 3-5 min is pass with no response from red dot or unresponsive player.

here it is aisha

;) I like publically appologize to Bambi for my rude and inconsiderate comments to her at start of this tournament. To say I very tire do not excuse my conduct and I do beg forgiveness from you Bambi. It is player responsibility to read tournament rules and I fail to do this. You is excellent TD and very nice person and bridge player. You tournaments is very fun with high standards and competition we all enjoy very much. You is wonderful addition to BBO TDs and we all apreciate you input and thoughtful comments on directions we take and missions we seek to accomplish. Please accept my humble appologies.

tee hee good point! Also our WONDERFUL Uday give us direct link to TD101 so to reach it all you need do now is type www.bridgebase.com/TD101 Woo hoo!

:huh: Well friends it is finish! Now I need you help to check for errors, suggest improvements, content who is maybe missing, etc. Comments encourage and appreciate Thanks in advance for helping! TD101

:rolleyes: Well... benefit to td is obvious. since pairs who is not doing good is cut we go to zero sub needs in later rounds. benefit to players is they do not need suffer with bad results or unhappy partnership for very much time. in final rounds people is excite if they make cut. and in last round it is sense of accomplishment to survive to end. so i do 35% cuts in fishy - for this approximate doing knock out tournaments i adore very much. I also do variable cut tournaments for this to is very fun (40-30-20-10) For people who do not like survivor then happily many other tournaments exist. but from large numbers we see in this events i think people enjoy challenge of surviving :-)

:P My favorite is from Spwdo (however previous post is very funny) Director! I need adjustment for my finesses is not working!